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Eighty years ago the world’s largest seaborne invasion was being planned for the early summer of 1944.

The Allies devised a series of ambitious moves designed to place their armies back in northern Europe to strike at Germany’s heartland and finally defeat Adolf Hitler.

On June 6, 1944 years of scheming bore fruit as troops scrambled ashore on French soil for the first time since the retreat from Dunkirk in 1940. Operation Overlord was the beginning of the end for the Third Reich.

At 9.01am that day a terse announcement from the government told the country: “Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France.”

While German forces in Russia and Italy were still fighting hard, it was clear by the end of 1943 that they could be defeated militarily providing an army could be landed in northern Europe.

The Luftwaffe was no longer a major threat and the Battle of the Atlantic had been won allowing convoys to cross with vital men and supplies from America.

France’s massive coastal defences had to be breached and the operation to achieve that involved naval, air and ground troops, French resistance workers and considerable expertise.

The prime objectives were:

THE ATLANTIC WALL

A network of concrete gun emplacements, machine gun nests, tanks traps and mines, barbed wire and booby traps, was built up over the years since the Allied retreat in 1940.

The area was commanded by Field Marshal Karl von Runstedt who had 60 divisions, 11 of them armoured, to defend France, Belgium and Holland.

He believed Allied air superiority meant his men were over extended and wished to pull back to the German frontier.

He also felt the Atlantic Wall was a “giant bluff”, something which angered Hitler who sent Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to be von Runstedt’s deputy and reinforce the wall. Despite being defeated in North Africa, Rommel was still held in high regard by Hitler.

Rommel could see the need to strengthen the fortifications and believed, like Hitler, that Normandy was a likely target for invasion.

Von Runstedt’s troops were not elite soldiers. They had been transferred to the Russian front and their replacements were raw, with many units still in training in 1944.

But the one thing Rommel had aplenty were mines. He planned to sow 20 million of them to form an impregnable 1,000-yard deep strip along the coast.

He also asked for, but did not get, troops from the High Command Reserves. In addition he demanded 24 anti-aircraft batteries between the Rivers Vire and Orne and for a mortar brigade to be stationed at Carentan. They never materialised.

To add to his problems, the forced labour of the Todt Organisation was being withdrawn to deal with increasing damage from bombing inside Germany so his mine laying plans were slowed down too.

The Allies had just 37 divisions to throw into battle but they had control of the seas as well as the air.

THE GREAT DECEPTION

In addition to their 37 divisions, the Allies decided to create The First Army Group, based in the south-east of England and the Fourth Army, based in Scotland.

These fictional armies consisted of a few men equipped with radio transmitters, dummy encampments and vehicles. Their radio traffic was deliberately slapdash, monitored by the Germans who became convinced that Eisenhower favoured a short crossing in the Pas de Calais. As a result, many troops were retained in the sector between Antwerp and Le Havre.

The Fourth Army also let the Germans think an invasion of Norway was planned, thus tying up even more troops. As part of the build up to early June 1944, Eisenhower took overall command of bombing raids in April. By May 12 oil installations were the main targets cutting production completely in some cases – or by as much as 60% at other locations.

By the first week in June, German coastal radar capacity was down to 20%. Bombers systematically pounded German cities, industrial centres and railway lines. Such raids have since been criticised as “barbaric” but were seen as necessary to sap German will and resources. Von Runstedt’s army needed 100 trains a day to supply it. Only 17 were now getting through.

Ships carrying radar transponders simulated massive fleet operations in the Pas de Calais area. Aircraft dropped “window”, the reflective strips which confused radar. All of these deceptions had to be in operation within a few days of the actual invasion.

Dr John Bullen, a curator at the Imperial War Museum, summed up the achievement. He said: “D-Day was the most complex operation in history.

“There have been bigger ones in terms of troops, such as Barbarossa, (Hitler’s invasion of Russia), but nothing on a scale such as this, attacking an enemy over water while he had supply lines open. It was brilliantly planned and most operations worked on the day, a unique operation.”

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT

Hobart’s “Funnies” – Early on it was realised that the giant defences in Normandy would have to be subjected to massive barrages from ships at sea, but closer inshore the infantry would need artillery fire and of a specialised nature.

Montgomery was keen to get tanks into action as quickly as possible, even firing from landing craft as they approached the beaches.

Thoughts turned to amphibious artillery and Major-General Sir Percy Hobart, creator of the 7th Armoured Division, was assigned to develop specialised armour for the invasion. He achieved a selection of vehicles the like of which were not possessed by any other army including bulldozer tanks, flail tanks to clear mines, Churchill flame-throwing tanks and bridge-layers and the Engineer tank (AVRE) which mounted a mortar for smashing through concrete defences and the amphibious tanks which swam ashore under their own power.

Although the Americans helped construct much of this equipment, they were reluctant to adopt it for their own use – with catastrophic results on Omaha beach on D-Day. Their advance was slowed with thousands of casualties as troops became bogged down by the strong shore defences.

For the British however, their converted Valentine, Churchill and Sherman tanks enabled thousands of troops to push forward from the coast to secure the vital bridgehead through which the vast piles of supplies and fuel would need to be delivered to keep the armies fighting.

GOOSEBERRY AND MULBERRY

To get supplies ashore meant either seizing a port or building a new one. Realising that capturing an intact port could take valuable time it was decided to construct a floating port which the Allies would take with them on D-Day.

British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had considered how this could be done and had suggested: “A number of flat bottomed barges or caissons, made not of steel but of concrete, which would float when empty of water and thus could be towed across.

“On arrival sea cocks would be opened and the caissons would settle on the bottom ... By this means a torpedo and weatherproof harbour would be created on the open sea.”

The planners adopted the idea codenaming the devices Mulberry. They also decided to use ships called Gooseberries, which would sail into position, scuttle themselves and add to the harbour construction.

Tanks, trucks and artillery require fuel. With the possibility of the Luftwaffe attacking seaborne tankers the planners decided to lay oil lines under the sea then pipe it directly ashore in France. These pipelines under the ocean, Pluto, ran to Cherbourg and Boulogne.

THE LONG RANGE BOMBARDMENT

To provide the weight of firepower needed to help get the invasion fleet of ships and landing craft to shore required the biggest warships and the heaviest guns around. In Belfast Lough and on the Clyde, mighty battleships assembled for D-Day.

On June 6 guns from four to 16ins blasted shore installations from dawn. The smoke was so thick accompanying minesweepers worked in a permanent fog and din.

“Oh yes, I was at D-Day all right but don’t ask me what it was like,” said former AB Hamish Marshall, who was aboard a trawler minesweeper.

“Once the big ships opened up you could hardly see a hand in front of your face. It was incredible.”

Winston Churchill was so desperate to be at the centre of the action it took a direct order from King George VI to stop him boarding HMS Belfast and sailing with the fleet.

Field Marshal von Runstedt received a report from the coast stating that the enemy continued to prevent them seeing their activities. The report continued: “The continued air attack on Dunkirk and the coast as far as Dieppe leads us to suppose that the enemy will attack in that sector. However, it is unlikely that the invasion is imminent.”

Von Runstedt countersigned the report and went off for lunch – unaware that 5,000 Allied ships and craft were sailing for France.

Retro: Hitler’s downfall was sealed with seaborne invasion of Normandy beaches

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